Walking with God (Galatians 5:25)

If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

There are three essential rules when it comes to real estate: “Location!  Location!  Location!”  When I found out that I would be appointed to St. Paul, I began to ask around, “What do you know about that church?”  One consistent theme emerged: “That church is hidden back in a neighborhood where nobody can find it.”

I choose to see it differently.  Our location isn’t a liability; it’s an asset.  Don’t think of our campus as being “hidden back in a neighborhood,” rather, think of it as “the center of one of the most dynamic, exciting, diverse, thriving, and desirable neighborhoods in Charlotte.”  We are not hidden in this neighborhood, we are the focal point, the hub, the center of this neighborhood.

One of the things I absolutely love about being the pastor of a neighborhood church is standing on the front steps every Sunday and greeting you all as you leave worship, and watching people disperse back into the neighborhood as they walk home.  How cool is that?  Where else do you get to do that?  Our purpose as a church is clear: we have been put here, in this place, to share God’s love with the people who are so close, they could walk.  May we pray.

Think about walking.  Does anyone here have any experience walking?  What are the some of the reasons that people walk?

Who took advantage of our location and walked to church this morning?  Maybe you didn’t realize it, but when you walked, you did a very spiritual thing.  Walking is integral to what it means to be a follower of Jesus.  For today, I’d like to focus on three reasons that people walk that also have profound implications for our spiritual lives.  1. walking gets us somewhere; 2. walking improves our health; and 3. walking nurtures our relationships.

Walking gets us somewhere

Walking gets us somewhere.  It is perhaps the most basic form of transportation.  Parents rejoice at a child’s first steps, and then retract their joy about a week later because now their child is into everything.  If you can walk, you can get places.  There are other ways of getting around, but if you can walk, that’s as basic and reliable as it gets.

Perhaps you’ve heard the story about the father who was driving his teenage son to school one morning, and started to give his son a hard time for the umpteenth time about his long hair and unkempt appearance.  The dad said, “Son, look at that wild hair of yours - you really should go get a haircut.  And why are you wearing those ratty old flip flops?!?  It’s the middle of November!  And would it kill you to shave once in awhile?”  The son had finally had enough, and he said, “You know who else had long hair, Dad?  Jesus!  You know who else had a beard?  Jesus!  You know who else wore sandals all the time?  Jesus!”  They drove on in silence for a few more minutes.  They reached the school, and the car didn’t even slow down.  Instead, the father drove for another mile before finally pulling over.  He opened the door and said, “Have it your way, smart guy - Jesus also walked everywhere he went.  Go, and do thou likewise.”

If you read the Gospels, you’ll notice that Jesus and his disciples did a lot of walking.  It is no coincidence, therefore, that many of the images and metaphors used to describe Christianity suggest movement.  We are followers of Jesus - that means he must be going somewhere and we’re trying to stay up with him.  The very language we use reminds us that Christianity is a faith on the go, and we are a people on the move.

On the Christian journey, where we are going is less important than how we’re getting there.  Jesus doesn’t ask us to have the whole trip mapped out and know each and every stop along the way.  Rather, he calls us to follow him and walk with him one step at a time.  That’s what the life of faith looks like - it’s trusting God enough to simply take the next step.  We walk by faith in the One who knows the way far better than we do.  Praise Team - musical response: “Precious Lord, Take My Hand.”

Walking is good for our health

A second benefit to walking is improving our health.  The benefits of walking are well-known.  According to the Mayo Clinic, moderate walking for as little as 15 minutes 3 times per week has positive health benefits, including weight loss, stress reduction, reducing risk for or better managing type-2 diabetes, lowering total cholesterol, and improvement in mood.

Likewise, walking with God is good for our spiritual health.  Following Jesus and walking according to the leading of the Holy Spirit helps us develop Christlike character, grow in our love of God and neighbor, be quick to listen and slow to speak, forgive others as we ourselves have been forgiven, be generous, positive, and joyful.

Walking with God helps us to become a little more like God each day.  The closer we get, the more of God’s character rubs off on us.  When I was a kid, my mom used to say that she was able to tell how my day had been by doing my laundry.  The grass stains and grease stains on my pants, the things she pulled out of my pockets, the wet paint on the bottom of my shoes - all of that told her where I had walked that day.

When we walk with God, it shows in the same way.  Perhaps you’ve heard it said that someone doesn’t just talk the talk, they walk the walk.  When we say this about someone, it’s a way of saying that person is the real deal.  They are a person of integrity - they way they live is consistent with who they claim to be.

When we walk with God, it shows.  My hope for each of us is that when people look through our pockets and at the bottoms of our shoes and the worn-out places on our knees, the evidence will be written all over us that we have been walking with God.

Walking builds relationship

A third benefit from walking is the building of companionship and relationship between people.  Friends, we live in a very distracted world.  Walking is a way to put all of those distractions aside and give our full attention to the person who is right beside us.  Walking with someone helps me listen more closely and more carefully to them.

When Ashley and I take a walk, I put my cell phone away and don’t look at it - no facebook, no email, no texting - it’s a way to say, “I am fully present with you in this moment.  You are the most important person I have to interact with right now.  Everything else, everyone else can wait.”

Walking with another person is something of a spiritual practice - tuning out all the other distractions and giving each other the gift of being fully and completely present with the other person in that moment.  Even moreso than an ordinary walk, when we are making our journey of faith with others – that is a spiritual practice.  When we are intentionally seeking to follow Jesus, to pattern our lives on his, to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to grow closer to God and trust God - we do all of that keenly aware of others who are also making the same journey with us.

None of us walks the road alone with Jesus.  Looking around opens our eyes to the reality that there are other travelers also on the journey - brothers and sisters making their pilgrimage - ahead of us and behind us, to our left and to our right, a great cloud of witnesses too numerous to count.

What good news it is that we don’t walk alone!  Those fellow travelers are not competition; they’re companions.  Those fellow travelers are a blessing to us as we walk along, and we are called to be a blessing to their walk.  Praise Team - musical response: “The Servant Song (vv. 2,4)

Covered in the dust of your Master

One last thing I want to say about walking and the implications it has for our spiritual lives.  In the time of Jesus, when people walked everywhere on dry and dusty roads, you can imagine the dust that could be kicked up.  It was a mess.  There is an old Jewish blessing often said to the students of a rabbi: “May you follow your Master so closely, you are covered with the dust of his feet.”  In other words, may your life closely and completely follow what your Master teaches you that you walk in the same way, and order your steps according to his.  May you follow your Master so closely, you are covered with the dust of his feet.

Here’s what I want us to consider: when it comes to our Master, how closely and completely are we willing to follow?  When it comes to following the Jesus who walked through the dirty places of a broken world in order to bring it healing and wholeness, are we covered with the dust of those same dirty places, or are our lives still a little too clean?

So, are we following Jesus completely and closely?  Or are we following partially, and at a distance?  Following at a distance is a great rule in traffic; it’s a horrible rule for a disciple.

The Christian life is a journey.  Walk close enough to Jesus to get his beautiful dust on you.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? (Revelation 21:1-6a)

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. ² I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. ³ I heard a loud voice from the throne say, “ Look! God’s dwelling is here with humankind. He will dwell with them, and they will be his peoples. God himself will be with them as their God. ⁴ He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more. There will be no mourning, crying, or pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. ” ⁵ Then the one seated on the throne said, “ Look! I’m making all things new. ” He also said, “ Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. ” ⁶ Then he said to me, “ All is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.

It has been said that we sing our theology.  What we sing with our lips, we believe in our hearts, and what we believe in our hearts, we show forth in our lives.  We just finished singing:

“Yet we on earth have union with God the Three in One,

and mystic sweet communion with those whose rest is won.

O happy ones and holy!  Lord, give us grace that we

like them, the meek and lowly, on high may dwell with thee.”

Friends, we sing it because we believe it, and on this All Saints’ Sunday, our belief in this promise from God is a source of deep hope, peace, and comfort.  Today, we celebrate the lives of the saints, those who have finished their course in faith, and now rest from their labors.  We celebrate their place in the Church Triumphant, among that great cloud of witnesses too great for any of us to number. In just a little bit, we will light these candles you see before you as a way to remember and honor the saints who have gone on ahead of us, a powerful proclamation that the light of those who die in the Lord burns on.  Their light still shines like so many twinkling stars in the heavens, a reminder that their witness still burns bright, and our communion with them is still in tact.

On a day like today, while we look back at their lives and remember what has been, we also look forward to the promise of what will be.  The promise is heaven: the kingdom of God, the holy city, the dwelling place of God, the place of perpetual fellowship with God and one another: described for us in the 21st Chapter of the book of Revelation, beginning with the 1st verse:

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.  I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.  I heard a loud voice from the throne say, ‘Look! God’s dwelling is here with humankind.  He will dwell with them, and they will be his peoples.  God himself will be with them as their God.  He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.  Death will be no more.  There will be no mourning, crying, or pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’”

What a beautiful vision.  What a hope-filled promise, especially knowing that our loved ones who have died in the Lord are already there, fulfilling the chief end of humankind, to glorify God and enjoy God forever.  A day is coming when we will join them and find our communion with them renewed.  But that reunion is not so far off into the future as we might think.

You see, the highway to heaven doesn’t run in only one direction.  It’s a two-way street.  It’s not only that we go to heaven; as we’ve seen in this vision from Revelation, heaven more often comes to us. 

It has been said that wherever the presence of God is found, that is heaven.  You’ve heard the saying, “Home is where the heart is.”  In the same way, heaven is where God is; and we know that God is anywhere and everywhere.  God - whose grace is boundless, whose mercy is matchless, whose love is from everlasting to everlasting - draws near to us all the time.  “I heard a loud voice from the throne say, ‘Look!  God’s dwelling is here with humankind.’”  That’s what the Scriptures tell us.  Sometimes we go to heaven, and often heaven comes to us.  Heaven is not so much just one place we commune with God, but every place God communes with us.

And not only God, but also those who are already in the nearer presence of God.  Neither the saints we remember nor the God who binds us together are distant, remote, or inaccessible.  They are right here among us.  Heaven isn’t far away; it is right here!  The great cloud of witnesses, all the hosts of heaven are right beside us, closer to us now, even than they’ve ever been before, because heaven has come to us - God’s abiding presence is here with us.

God prefers to be among the people.  Always has, always will.  And it is the presence of God in our lives that makes all the difference.  The vision of heaven continues in verse 5: “Then the one seated on the throne said, ‘Look, I’m making all things new.’”  This is a promise to us.  God is making all things new.  Here’s the key of the whole thing: those whom we celebrate on this day as saints above were first saints on earth, and the thing that made them saints in the first place was the reality that God was making something new within their hearts.

Saints experience the holy presence of God as a transforming influence in their lives.  Saints are those who are being made new - those who are being transformed more into the image of a loving God with each passing day.  Such openness to the transforming grace of God is the only prerequisite for sainthood.  What makes a saint is not some special virtue or accumulated holiness or perfection.  A saint isn’t someone who has arrived, no, a saint is someone who knows that they are a work in progress, but thanks be to God, God isn’t finished with them yet.

Friends, it is this transformation, this being made new that God does within us, that makes a saint.  Today, on this All Saints’ Sunday, God calls us again to be clay in the hands of the potter, to enable God’s holy presence in our midst to continue to shape our lives and our faith as his saints here on earth.

In order to be shaped by that holy presence, we come often to the places where that holy presence is promised and experienced.  We come to the places where grace is made real in our lives, and one of the places where God has explicitly promised to come to us is in the meal of Holy Communion.  In Communion grace is offered, the presence of the risen Christ is experienced, and we look forward to the heavenly banquet that awaits us.  And sure enough, all the company of heaven joins us at the table.  Their presence is as real as the bread in our hands, so when you come to the table today, know that the saints above are having communion with the saints on earth.

Maybe you’re wondering if you’ll get into heaven when you die.  Learn from the saints; let heaven get into you while you live.

The Next Ten Years in the United Methodist Church

(This is part of a weekly email I send out to the St. Paul congregation.  Some of it is obviously specific to our context.  Much of it, however, may easily apply to your church and situation.)

As we talk about taking steps into the future as a congregation, you need to be aware of some trends taking place in society and how those will affect us in very tangible ways.  To be sure, there are drastic changes coming in the next 10-15 years in how we do ministry.  Those changes inevitable; my hope is that we as a church will figure out, proactively, what we want to do about it rather than simply let the change happen to us.  Again, these changes are inevitable; it your decision to either drive the changes needed to weather what is coming, or just let those changes happen to us.  Here are there factors I want you to consider.

1.       Rising costs.  The costs for overhead operating expenses for churches – health insurance for pastors, utilities, insurance have been rising sharply in recent years.  We expect these costs to continue to rise sharply into the future.

2.       Declining membership and revenue.  Most churches have felt a financial squeeze in recent years, particularly focused around the recession that began in 2008.  We should not expect this to simply “pick up” when the economy recovers.  Why?  Because as Dr. Lovett Weems of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership in Washington, DC says, in warning us about a coming “Death Tsunami:” The U.S. death rate is currently in a stable period that began in 2003 and continues until 2018. But what follows this plateau is a death wave in which there will be more deaths and a higher death rate than at any time since the widespread introduction of antibiotics and other medical advances. The total number of deaths each year will go up until 2050, and the majority of these deaths will be older non-Hispanic whites and African Americans, the two largest constituencies of mainline churches.”

Think of the number of our members who are “older non-Hispanic whites.”  If we are not reaching more people, younger people, and more diverse people, our chances for long-term survival as a church are grim.

Weems calls for resetting the financial baseline in congregations ahead of the “death tsunami.”  He says, “As with any organization facing the future after 45 years of unabated decline in its constituency, there must be a stepping back to a new and lower baseline in order to move forward. Otherwise, all energy must go to maintaining the old unrealistic financial baseline. 
The purpose of resetting the financial baseline is to free the preoccupation from money to reaching people for Christ through vital congregations. The criteria that matter going forward must be around reaching people, and the whole system needs alignment toward that goal. Money is a lagging indicator. We reset in order to return to the basics on which all giving depends — changed lives and transformed communities. There is no future for churches that cannot reach more people, younger people, and more diverse people. 
The death tsunami is coming. If it sweeps over a church already stretched to its limits to survive financially year by year, the result could be catastrophic. However, if it comes to a church that has reset its baseline and demonstrated the ability to begin growing, then the losses will occur, but will not deter the "field of energy" already moving in the denomination. Such a church will not only survive but come out on the other side as a growing, missional, and spiritually alive instrument of God. The time to make choices is now — while there are still choices to be made. Otherwise, circumstances will make the choices for us in the future.

3.       Availability of Clergy.  To put it crudely, this is a supply and demand issue.  Right now in Western North Carolina, we have about as many clergy as we have appointments to fill.  This is not the case in all conferences; there are already a number of conferences that are experiencing a clergy shortage, meaning every year, there are churches who go without a pastor, often for years at a time.

However, before we breathe a big sigh of relief, we’re not too far away from that.  The average age of the active clergy currently serving in Western North Carolina is 54.  Meaning? Over the next 10-12 years, half of the ordained clergy in our conference will retire, meaning they are no longer available for appointment.

Someone asked, “Aren’t young people coming into ministry anymore?”  And, yes, they are.  Young clergy like me, those who are 35 or under, represent about 5% of the total clergy in the conference.  That figure is expected to remain about the same for the forseeable future.

So in the next 10 years:

·         50% of our clergy will retire

·         Another 5% will come in

·         Resulting in a net loss of 45% of our available clergy

So What?  Good question.  Put all those factors on the table at the same time, and in a few years we have this combination:

·         Exponential rise in costs
·       Decline in revenue
·         Decline in membership
·            Not enough pastors to go around

Gil Rendle, Senior Consultant with the Texas Methodist Foundation in Austin, TX and a leading voice on how these trends will play out, estimates that by 2030:

·         1/3 of existing United Methodist churches will close

·         1/3 of existing United Methodist churches will consolidate, merge, form a cooperative parish, or be joined in a charge (one or more churches sharing a pastor)

·         1/3 of existing United Methodist churches will continue to operate about how they currently are

In short, our largest and most-resourced congregations will be fine.  These also tend to be congregations that are growing and specifically reaching more, younger, and more diverse people.  Their focus is already on mission rather than money or maintenance. Our smallest and least-resourced congregations will have the hardest time.  Those who wait for change to happen rather than planning proactively will have the hardest time of all.  These congregations are already spending an inordinate amount of their focus on money and maintenance; mission is already secondary, and they will not survive.

The question for us to consider is where St. Paul will fall in this.  Change is coming – costs will rise, people will die, resources will be stretched, pastors will be in short supply.  What happens to this congregation as a result of these changes is directly related to the decisions this congregation makes now.  We can make choices now while we still have options, or allow these factors to play themselves out until we have no options.

The time to prepare is now.  What changes and decisions do we need to make in order to weather the storm?  If we wait until all these things are taking place, it will already be too late.

My fear is that if we, and neighboring churches like us, wait until it’s too late, there will be no United Methodist Church in this part of Charlotte.  Whether or not that happens is up to you.  The choices and decisions necessary are yours to make.  The changes are coming, one way or the other.  My hope is that 10, 20, 50 years from now, there is at least one vibrant, healthy United Methodist Church in this part of Charlotte actively engaged in its mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ.

What will the future look like?  It will certainly be different.  But how well we live into it depends on the choices we make now.  May God give us the grace and guidance to choose wisely the path that best pleases and honors God.

Treasures of the Heart (Luke 12:15-34)

¹⁵ Then Jesus said to them, “ Watch out! Guard yourself against all kinds of greed. After all, one’s life isn’t determined by one’s possessions, even when someone is very wealthy. ” ¹⁶ Then he told them a parable: “ A certain rich man’s land produced a bountiful crop. ¹⁷ He said to himself, What will I do? I have no place to store my harvest! ¹⁸ Then he thought, Here’s what I’ll do. I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. That’s where I’ll store all my grain and goods. ¹⁹ I’ll say to myself, You have stored up plenty of goods, enough for several years. Take it easy! Eat, drink, and enjoy yourself. ²⁰ But God said to him, ‘Fool, tonight you will die. Now who will get the things you have prepared for yourself?’ ²¹ This is the way it will be for those who hoard things for themselves and aren’t rich toward God. ”

²² Then Jesus said to his disciples, “ Therefore, I say to you, don’t worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. ²³ There is more to life than food and more to the body than clothing. ²⁴ Consider the ravens: they neither plant nor harvest, they have no silo or barn, yet God feeds them. You are worth so much more than birds! ²⁵ Who among you by worrying can add a single moment to your life? f²⁶ If you can’t do such a small thing, why worry about the rest? ²⁷ Notice how the lilies grow. They don’t wear themselves out with work, and they don’t spin cloth. But I say to you that even Solomon in all his splendor wasn’t dressed like one of these. ²⁸ If God dresses grass in the field so beautifully, even though it’s alive today and tomorrow it’s thrown into the furnace, how much more will God do for you, you people of weak faith! ²⁹ Don’t chase after what you will eat and what you will drink. Stop worrying. ³⁰ All the nations of the world long for these things. Your Father knows that you need them. ³¹ Instead, desire his kingdom and these things will be given to you as well.

³² “Don’t be afraid, little flock, because your Father delights in giving you the kingdom. ³³ Sell your possessions and give to those in need. Make for yourselves wallets that don’t wear out—a treasure in heaven that never runs out. No thief comes near there, and no moth destroys. ³⁴ Where your treasure is, there your heart will be too.

“The church is only interested in my money.”  Have you ever heard someone say something like that?  Well, today is Commitment Sunday, so here we go.  May we pray.

When it comes to money, most congregations go through the same motions every year, with an embarrassed preacher half-heartedly mumbling an invitation for the congregation to open their wallets, who are squirming until it’s all over and they can get home before kickoff.  What a missed opportunity.  Jesus knew that money - how we use it and how we relate to it - was a leading indicator of what was going on in our hearts and where our priorities really were.

So no, the church isn’t only interested in your money.  We’re also interested in your time, and your talents, and your temperament.  We’re interested in your relationships, in your attitudes and actions, in your commitments and in your priorities.  In short, we’re interested in your heart, your whole life, even, because that’s what Jesus is interested in.

Maybe you’re sitting there thinking, “Wow, my church expects a lot from me.”  And you’d be right.  In fact, say that out loud: “My church expects a lot from me.”  Yes, your church expects a lot from you because God expects a lot from you - but here’s the really important part, so listen carefully - those expectations are within the context of your personal abilities and circumstances.  I know that circumstances are not easy for a lot of people right now.  Your church knows that.  God knows that.  You may be struggling right now because of a job or medical or family situation, you may be buried under debt and getting the Visa bill from hell every month - you may have circumstances in your life preventing you from living with the joy and generosity you earnestly desire and God intends.

If that’s where you are today, today’s message is that this church community is there for you, and will walk with you through your difficulty; that’s what the body of Christ does.

For the rest of us, God has clear expectations about what we do with money, and those expectations are for our own good as followers of Jesus Christ.

Things you never thought you'd hear a preacher say.

You see, the church doesn’t need your money.  Never thought you’d hear a preacher say that, now did you?  Members of the finance committee are having a heart attack right about now!  But, I stand by it: the church doesn’t need your money.  God doesn’t need your money.  If that’s true, why should any of us give?  Because, we are followers of Jesus, the One whose infinite grace led him to generously give himself for the sake of the world, and as his disciples, as those who are striving to become Christlike, we are called to the same kind of generosity.  That’s why we give.  The church doesn’t need your money; as disciples, we need to be generous.

Today’s Scripture is one of 25 places throughout the four Gospels where Jesus is clearly talking about money.  This particular sermon of his includes warnings against being anxious or greedy, about hoarding for ourselves and being stingy with what we give to God.  Instead, he tells us to seek first God’s kingdom, and then everything we need will be taken care of.

In essence, this sermon from Jesus asks us to decide who is Lord of our lives: Almighty God, or Almighty Dollar.  Jesus’ sermon reaches its conclusion in the last verse we’ve read, when he says, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be too.”

A few weeks ago, Ashley and I stopped by the drive-thru ATM.  I was trying to be as quick as possible, because there were a few cars in line behind us.  I had several transactions to make, and while I was punching in numbers, I just handed Ashley my wallet, receipts, and cash.  As we drove down the street, she said, “Wow, I’ve never had your wallet before,” to which I replied, “Sweetie, you’ve had my wallet for three years, now.”

Any parent knows when you have kids, that’s where the money goes.  Whoever or whatever you love, that’s where you’re going to spend your money.  It would just make sense, then, that if we love God, we’d give our money to God.

Jesus' teaching on money is the
opposite of conventional wisdom.

Conventional wisdom sounds like this: “If we can just get people’s hearts right, then the money will follow.”  But, that’s not it at all.  Jesus teaches the opposite of conventional wisdom.  Jesus says that if you put your money someplace, your heart is going to go with it.  Your practice shapes your heart.  Where your treasure is, there your heart will be too.

You’ve heard the saying, “Put your money where your mouth is.”  The message from Jesus goes one further: Put your money where you want your heart to be.  Where do you want your heart to be?  Put your money there.  Where your treasure is, there your heart will be, too. As goes your wallet, so goes your heart.  If you want your heart to grow closer to God, put more of your treasure in God’s hands.

How much of our treasure?  Over and over again, the Bible teaches us to tithe - to give 10% of our income to God through our local church.  Those who do will confirm that God blesses us abundantly when we tithe.

2 Corinthians 9:6-7 tells us, “the one who sows a small number of seeds will also reap a small crop, and the one who sows a generous amount of seeds will also reap a generous crop.  ⁷ Everyone should give whatever they have decided in their heart. They shouldn’t give with hesitation or because of pressure. God loves a cheerful giver.”

What we give are like seeds of blessing.  Sometimes people ask, “Am I supposed to give 10% gross or 10% net?” and my response is always the same: it depends how big a blessing you want - a gross-sized blessing, or a net-sized blessing!  We cheerfully give everything we can, because we know that God blesses generous giving.

And really, God is the one who gave it to us in the first place.  Our relationships, our health, our resources, our skills, our talents, our ability to make a living and earn an income in the first place - all of that is free gift from God.  God simply asks us to give a portion of that back to God, as a way of expressing our gratitude.  Makes it easy to give generously and cheerfully!

Further, the Bible teaches us to give God our first-fruits (Proverbs 3:9).  We intentionally set aside God’s portion first, before we spend anything else.  We give God what’s best, not just what’s left.

How have you divided your income?

The way we do this in our house is to follow the 10-10-80 rule.  The first 10% of our income goes to God through the church, the second 10% goes into savings, and then we live off the remaining 80%.  We do it right off the top; we don’t even think about the first 10% as our money; that’s God’s money!  That’s one of the reasons we give electronically - not only is it convenient, but every week, God gets paid first.  I’m not asking you to commit to anything we don’t do ourselves.  We have experienced abundant blessing in our lives as a result of generous giving, and we invite you to do the same, because we want you to experience that level of blessing, as well.

In Jesus Math, notice what's gone and what's still going.

And there’s something more.  I call it “Jesus Math.”  Here’s how it works.  That 80% that we’ve kept to live off of - most of that is gone.  It’s gone to pay for a lot of stuff we don’t have any more: cars and clothes that have worn out, gadgets and gizmos we’ve broken or lost, golf balls I’ve shanked into the woods, haircuts that are less and less necessary, movies we can’t remember.  But that 10% we’ve given to God, it still lives on, in the adults, youth, and children whose lives have been changed because the church shared the love of God with them.  That’s how Jesus Math works - the part we kept for ourselves is now gone, but the part we gave away is still going.

Now, you may be looking at that figure of 10%, and thinking, “I’d like to, but pastor, there’s no way I can do that.”  Growing in generosity is sorta like training for a marathon; you don’t wake up one morning and say, “I’m going to run 26.2 miles today.”  The way to do that is to train, stretching yourself over time until finally you reach that goal and are ready to run the marathon.

When it comes to giving, moving toward tithing takes the same sort of intentional planning and determination.  So wherever you are, take a step that is reachable.  Here’s how to start.  Ask yourself, “What percentage of my income is God calling me to give?”  If you’re not thinking about giving in terms of a percentage of your income, start thinking about it.  Think about what you give now, and challenge yourself to give 1% more next year, and 1% more the year after that, until you reach that goal of 10%.  If you’re already giving 10%, consider how you will remember your church in your estate planning.  Wherever you are, take the next step in faith.  Generosity is good for the soul; as we grow in giving, we grow closer to God.  God will bless the step you take in faith.

Here’s another cool thing about Jesus Math: the person who makes $10 a week and gives $1 has given the same amount as a person who makes $1000 a week and gives $100.  The means of these two people are very different, but their generosity is equal, their gift is the same, and God is equally pleased with both.

This week, you will receive a mailing asking you to prayerfully consider your financial commitment to the church in 2013.  Read it.  Go to God in prayer, considering God’s goodness and faithfulness and the blessings in your life.  Honestly ask yourself, “What percentage of my income is God calling me to give?”  Fill out your card and bring it to worship next week, where will all put our commitments together, and dedicate them to God.

For today, I invite you to respond by writing three things in your bulletin and spending some time in prayer and reflection over them:

1.   Thank God for God’s goodness, God’s faithfulness, and the blessings in your life.

2.   In response, ask yourself, “What percentage of my income is God calling me to give?”

3.   What changes in my lifestyle need to occur to grow in my generosity?

Maybe you’re going to wait another year before you buy that new car, maybe you’re going to eat out one time less each week, maybe you’re going to scale back on how much you spend on that family vacation, maybe you’re going to cut down your cable package, or spend a little less at Christmas, maybe you’ve got some personal debts to tackle.  As our musicians play, spend the next few minutes in prayer over these three things, at your seat or at the altar rail, and seek God’s guidance for how you are to respond.

Where your treasure is, there your heart will be too.  The church doesn’t need your money; that’s not it, at all.  The more of your treasure you give to God, the more of your heart you’re going to give as well.  Whoever is Lord of our pocket is certainly going to be Lord of our life.  May we grow in generosity; may we grow closer to God.

Living as People of Faith in an Election Season

An election, particularly a national election as tight as this year’s promises to be, highlights the deep partisan divisions inherent in our particular two-party political system.  We are confronted with the reality that we live as a deeply polarized people, often divided clearly into two camps of political opinion.

This reality of division is particularly troublesome for people of Christian faith, who are called to unity despite difference, allegiance to God over any nation, loyalty to Christ over any candidate, commitment to the body of Christ over any political party, hope in the resurrection of Christ over that promised or provided by any temporal power or person.

Easier said than done.  This election season, you will see many Christians from both the right and left use religious faith and conviction to push you toward a particular candidate, a particular political party, a particular platform.  Don’t fall for it.  You’re smarter than that, and as a follower of Jesus, you’re called to something better.

You are a member of the body of Christ – that means your ultimate allegiance, hope, and identity rest in Christ.  The Scriptures tell us that kings and kingdoms (powers, principalities, nations, rulers, politicians, and parties, if you will) will all pass away, but the name of the Lord endures forever.  No nation, candidate, form of government, or political party is the hope of the world – that position is already taken by Jesus.  And as a member of his body, you are already joined together as One – whether you want to admit it or not – with all other members of the body, even if they live in a different place, even if they voted for the other guy.

This election season, I encourage you to get involved.  Study the issues.  Get to know the candidates and what they stand for.  Vote your choice freely and with a clear conscience.  But on November 6 and after, regardless of the result, know that Jesus is still Lord, and you are still joined with others in the body whose preferences may be different than your own.  Nevertheless, they are not your enemy.  They are your brother or sister in Christ.

The world will know that we are Christians by our love, not by our voting record.

On election day, many Christians around the country are joining together to show their unity in Christ trumps their political preferences.  Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, Protestant mainliners and Evangelicals, will come together, shed their difference of opinion, and participate in Election Day Communion, remembering that their first allegiance is to Christ and the other members of Christ’s body.  I find this to be a beautiful expression of the body of Christ coming together to celebrate who we are and WHOSE we are.

Locally, Election Day Communion will be celebrated at Renovatus Church in Charlotte and Covenant United Methodist Church in Gastonia (where my good friend, Paul Brown is the pastor).  If you would like to participate in Election Day Communion, contact either congregation to find out the details of the event.

To read more about Election Day Communion, including links to articles and background on the movement, go to www.electiondaycommunion.org